


Grimm & Nix

by Keenir



Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-11
Updated: 2012-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-11 22:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/483499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juliette has escaped the hospital.  Her sister wants vengence.  Renard wants to save Juliette.  As does Nick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vera Silverton

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Swanpride and Macx_Larabee for their help with the German.
> 
> Any and all remaining errors, in language or elsewhere, are entirely my own.

*********************************************************************

'and he was so frightened he didn't know whether to stay or run. But she spoke to him in a soft voice, called him by name, and asked him why he was so sad.'

*********************************************************************

Juliette awoke in hospital, eyes consumed by her pupils, and a salient question trapped behind her lips: _Am I Different ?_ as her hands flexed with newfound power and feet itched to move.

Her ears perked up at the nigh-imperceptible pitter-patter of someone coming down the corridor towards her room. She held perfectly still, unmoving...except her head, which looked at the tubes and wires hooked up to her. A feral smile graced her lips.

*******

Captain Renard nodded to the duty nurse as he made his way to the room the receptionist had told him he could find Juliette resting in. _I need to find out what Adalind did to her. Juliette wasn't supposed to have been a casualty._ It bristled to have found out that she had been admitted here, and through secondhand information at that.

Renard paused at her door, listening to see if she already had visitors - particularly those who hadn't checked in downstairs - or was even awake yet. He heard nothing, so he opened the door and took a step inside.  
Instantly hands grabbed his arms and slung him to the floor, where Juliette's full weight pressed down on his chest. Inhumanly broad all-black eyes stared down at Renard, who waited to see what she would do.

"Tell Nick," she said, her voice clipped like choppy waves. "Tell Nick."

"Which part?" Renard asked. _The part about him being a Grimm, or the part about him being about to marry into one of the oldest Families in society?_

"You gave me your word, Renard," Juliette said, the weight properly applied behind those words was enough to make even Renard's blood run cold.

A mad idea dropped into his mind: to grab her arms, perhaps roll over and pin her down or lasso her with the various machines in the room.

Juliette fled the room.

Renard called for backup and to have everyone keep an eye out for one Juliette Silverton. Then he made the call he had hoped to never have to make.

*******

When Renard returned at last to the police station, he was handed an envelope with no note; just a simple message written on the inside. He obeyed it, which was why he was up on the station's roof right now. Looking at a loner standing a dozen feet from the edge of his building.

_Not normally up high, you or your family._ "A bit out of your element, aren't you?" Renard asked.

"This may be your canton, but it is my family's territory," was her reply. "You lost my sister. By rights, I could skip the flogging, and strip the meat from your skin."

"I didn't know you were a traditionalist, Vera."

Vera Silverton turned her head to look at Renard, her body turning after. "You were always calm under pressure, Renard. That was your saving grace. But we have moved beyond your desire for my sister. Who you witnessed escape from a hospital."

"I have every available officer out looking for her," Renard said.

"You could deputize every human in the state, it wouldn't matter. We taught her how to avoid trouble. And speaking of, it isn't just myself and my family about which you need be concerned."

"The Grimm isn't a problem."

"You're speaking in the singular. That's no longer the case."

"Who?" _Who else is new in town?_

"A Grimm who hates Wesen, Renard. Axiomatic as it is, it is true, and a woman on the hunt."

"I'll deal with her."

"No."

"No?" Renard asked.

"Correct. You _will_ continue leading the search for my sister. You will not stop until you find her - or until you die."

Renard knew better than to question that - her kind didn't use hyperbole, particularly not when giving orders. And that was an order. "And may I ask what you will be doing?" Renard asked.

"Separating the Grimms. And leaving Burkhart only one choice to make."

"And if he makes the wrong choice?"

She produced the same feral smile that Juliette had worn. "Then we win."

*******

Nick hung up and pocketed his cell phone. 

"Good news?" Monroe asked, glancing over briefly.

"Hank promised to save me a spot on the front lines," Nick said. _He said he understood when I said I had to be the one to let Juliette's sister know what was going on. I didn't mention to Hank that Monroe had shown up at my house, telling me that Vera Silverton is at his house. Also omitted mentioning that there was a woman explaining how she could be my mother - my supposedly dead mother - when Monroe arrived._ Nick sighed. "It ever get easier?"

"What, being a Grimm? Like I would know?" Monroe asked lightly.

"No, I mean dealing with one crazy thing after another."

"Oh right, that. Also don't know that. I've always tried to avoid that, and just work on my pilates, and build birdhouses. Well, not always, but ever since...you know."

"No, I don't think I do."

"Its not important. Definately not important now."

Nick nodded. "So, why is my future sister-in-law in your house? You were a little vague on that before."

"That's because that 'before' involved your dead mother wanting to put my head on the wall," Monroe said.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Not your fault. Anyway, Rosalee knows her, and she said a member of the Silverton family needed somewhere safe to meet you."

"'Safe'...Before, you said something about neutrality."

"Umm..."

"Monroe?" _Why would you and Rosalee use words like 'safe' and 'neutrality' when I get along fine with Juliette's family? Vera's a botanist. I'm a cop. I'm a Grimm._ "Wait, are you saying the Silvertons are Wesens?" Nick asked.

"Sure...like how ninjas and atom bombs are good anti-theft devices."

"Superwesens?" Nick asked as they pulled up in front of Monroe's house.

"Let me just say they aren't the sort of people you expect to show up for tea," Monroe said as they got out of the car. _Unless you're about to dance with the devil anyway, in which case they step in._

"So when you came over for dinner...?"

"Nick, look, I swear to you, I had no idea your fiance was - well, one of _them_ until Rosalee told me. Most Silvertons are nice, normal, human, and things like that."

"Fine," Nick said. _I suppose this explains why Monroe's 'seeing red' never kicked in when he was around Juliette._ "One thing, though - when you say 'them' like that, who're we talking about?"

"Nixes - formally, though, it would be Nixen," Monroe said. "Some say they're part of the Nocks. Course, some say they're kissing cousins of Kappas. Not that anyone says it outside a beer stein. Not that I go in those sorts of pubs. Much. I don't drink there," he said as he and Nick reached the front door - and Rosalee opened it before anyone else could. "Um, hi," Monroe asked. _Should I ask how much of that you overheard?_

"She's inside," Rosalee said to Nick and Monroe. "And now she has a prisoner." _I let slip who we believed was responsible for doing this to Nick's fiance, and now she's here too._

"A prisoner?" Nick asked, entering the house.

"Well that's not good," Monroe said, following him. Monroe had barely done more than poke his head in the room where Vera was, before he felt compelled to say, "Aw come on, not on the carpet."


	2. Trouble Seekers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMDB.com says the Captain's name is "Sean Renard."  
> .-----------------------------------------------------------.

Vera Silverton did not look up, did not look at the new arrivals. She continued staring down at her prisoner, which was easy because Adalind was bound to a chair and looking at the slowly-drying pool of her own blood around the chair.

To Nick's grimmsight, Vera was inches taller than usual, and so paler-than-white that she was practically glowing, with partly-webbed fingers. "Back away, Vera," Nick said.

"So good of you to join us, Nick," Vera said. "I'd offer you a few pounds of flesh from this _Unterhexen_ , but as it is you're what turned her into one."

"Adalind's a _Hexenbiest_ , not an Unte..."

"Difficulty already? Rosalee clarified for me that you prefer Wesen-Deutsch where names are concerned, so I didn't call this one A Little Magic in English."

"Has she told you where Juliette is?" Nick asked.

"How could she do that? In her present state, she could do no more than mix chemicals."

"Then why involve her?"

Vera turned to face Nick, the look in her woge'd face nearly enough to get Monroe to back up several feet. "Because the Grimm whose sister-in-law I will be, failed to finish the job."

"I stopped her." Nick said.

"You incited her."

"Before," Adalind said to Nick, not moving her head, her voice low and sore, "it was duty and obedience. Hank, the Mellifers, all; I obeyed. That wasn't why I drew your sweetness' blood with more ease than you drew mine, Nick."

"And look where revenge got you," Monroe said. "This is a perfect example of why I don't like it."

"I seem to remember you being a lot nicer to people, Vera," Nick said.

"And I recall you being someone who does not decapitate his enemies," Vera replied calmly.

"That's different and you know it."

"That difference is the same for the both of us."

"Fine, maybe it is. But that doesn't answer what you're going to do with Adalind, particularly since you say she doesn't know where Juliette is."

"She will be punished for her crimes. Stop fretting, Blutbad," Vera told Monroe, "the fun won't be here."

"Fun?" Nick asked.

"Do you want to help with Adalind, complain about my word choice, or go find Juliette?" Vera asked. "Captain Renard's police won't find her." _Though there is the possibility that one of his loyalists might find her for him._

"You're not going to help look? Join a search party?"

"When I finish mete-ing out justice."

"Justice or revenge?"

"Were it simply revenge, I would penalize you as well, Nick," Vera said. "And who do you think did your job before your talents became active?"

"You?"

"And the threat of my family. No sane or semi-sane Wesen wants us nipping at their heels."

"Or drowning us in lakes," Monroe said.

“Sounds like you’ve been busy,” Nick said.

Vera de-woge'd, returning to the appearance Nick had previously always known for her. "When they’re afraid of us, they’re unlikely to do the things that bring us around. We have no three-strikes law, Nick."

 _‘We’ the Wesen or ‘we’ the Nixen?_ "And believe me when I say I'll talk to you about that later," Nick said. "But what did Monroe mean about drowning in lakes? Is that where Juliette is?"

"We live in rives and lakes and similar freshwater bodies," Vera said. "But you're missing the obvious."

"What's obvious?"

Vera sighed, her face momentarily thrusting forward to look pancake-flat, then returning to human guise. "One of the first things Juliette ever told you."

"She's a natural redhead," Nick said.

"And an adopted one," Vera said. "But that will not matter to the woman who claims to be your mother and fellow Grimm."

"You know about her?" Nick asked.

"It is not purely our inherited nobility that makes it unwise for Wesen dynastic cycles to cross us."

_'Cycles'...like what that Verrat told me._

"Now," Vera said to Nick, "who will you help?"

*******

Frank Rabe opened his door.

Adalind Schade's voice was not something one forgot. She had told him in a phone call a minute ago, 'You have the option of refusing to inherit your wife's obligation. But then it would fall upon your son's shoulders.'

The ability to go full bear had been lost for centuries. Diane had somehow acquired it, though she had never used it much - the last time had been when the Grimm had threatened their children.

When Frank had agreed to shoulder what his wife owed, Miss Schade had told him to look for something that acted like it was one of the Nixes.

Frank stepped out of his house, intent on searching the woods, when a crossbow bolt struck the wall next to his head. "That was the warning shot," he was told.

"Who are you?" he asked her.

"Just call me the Mother."

"The mother of what?"

"Grimms. Now, you even _twitch_ about going into woge, and this place gets a new rug."

"Where are we going?" Frank asked.

"You're going to look for a fish. One with legs."

_You too?_

*******

Juliette Silverton rested on the bottom of the river, her mind reviewing everything that had happened...  
...Nick had talked about being a Grimm, but he'd done it so outlandishly and while she was not in peak health...  
...Adalind's cat had scratched her, breaking the skin...  
... _I suppose my skin lotion got into my bloodstream. It's not for open cuts and sores._..  
... _I attacked Sean. I asked him to tell Nick. Forgot to say what to tell him._..  
...Juliette had found shelter in the water, and later easily grab-able clothing, and made her way deeper into the temperate rainforest...  
...where a Wesen had crossed her path.

The Monoceran had been decidedly hostile, so she had dragged it underwater and snapped its neck. _The principle is the same with any animal,_ Juliette knew, her fingers weighing down the horned Wesen so it wouldn't drift away or rise to the surface.

Like her sister, Juliette had gone to swim camp for instruction and the basics. Their mother had continued the lessons afterwards, drawing on her studies of humans in the South Pacific and points around there.

Once she had learned how to hold her breath for minutes at a time, then her mother and sister had taught her how to go to the surface and breathe without being seen. _Roll over, exhale, inhale, only the nose and lips and a little cheek visible. Then roll and swim back down. And wait._

On her way back down, Juliette resumed thinking about what she would say when Nick arrived. _And how I’ll tell him that my Family are the eldest living enemies of the Grimms. Perhaps - --_

Lacking any ability to woge, Juliette had picked up other methods for detecting people or things approaching the water -- ripples, the movement of fish and insects, footfalls, shadows, and other things. That was how she knew she once more was not alone. And this time, it wasn’t a lone figure walking nearer and nearer.

Juliette swam up to the surface, planting her feet on the ground, ready to dive back in the river and head for elsewhere if the need be.

*******

As the three of them made their way through another mid-forest clearing, “What do you know about her, I mean about her family?” Rosalee asked, curious. “I’ve admitted to a lot where mine’s concerned,” she said when Monroe shot her a ‘what are you doing?’ look.

“And we’re both thankful and sorry you had to do that,” Nick said.

“Thank you,” Rosalee mouthed.

“Juliette’s dad runs a community center - used to be a janitor there, according to Juliette. And her mom’s an anthropologist; she wrote a paper on pearl divers and other people who can hold their breath longer than most could. And you may've heard that Vera's a botanist."

“So how did they get their hands on the girl who became your fiance?” Monroe asked.

“Could be any number of ways,” Rosalee said. “Regular adoption, foster care, payment for a deal, or they found a baby abandoned in a church.”

“Juliette never said, and I never asked,” Nick said. A thought occurred to him: "So this is basically Holly in reverse, isn't it?" Nick asked.

"Sounds like it," Monroe agreed. "Though I'm not sure who got the short end of the stick."

"What was that you told me about not using offensive phrases?" Nick teased.

Monroe rolled his eyes.

"Holly?" Rosalee asked.

"Blutbad girl, adopted by a human woman, and later kidnapped and lost in the woods for better part of a decade."

“Having to learn how to woge and what it was…” Rosalee said, wincing at the weight of that. “Brave girl. She okay?”

“She is now,” Nick said.

"You know, maybe it's just me," Monroe said, "but I was getting the feeling the prisoner back at my house - which is going to be a nightmare to clean up, even just the blood, and I speak from experience there - hadn't known Juliette was part of...you know."

Rosalee said, "And the toxin makes the victim think they're whomever they've been in contact with the most."

"Which begs the question..." Nick said.

"Who is Adalind Schade working for, that turning your fiance into a Grimm is _a good thing?_ "

*******

Bud and his close friends moved the lights from their flashlights around the woods methodically, wary of anything that might care to jump out of the big dark forest and make an Eisbiber meal. Nick had called and asked for a favor - _and really, who turns down the chance for a Grimm to owe you a favor? It's like a bedtime story._

"A Nixie?" another Eisbiber asked.

"Yep, one of the Nixen," Bud said. Nick had said that his fiance was the victim of some sort of an attack that made her think she was a Nix, a member of a Wesen subgroup with more names and variations of the name than lots bore.

"I suppose this is payback for him killing those trolls and Reapers."

"And the favor, too." _Nick thinks we're friends - not going to contradict him. Lions - and Grimms - don't need to worry about the motives of lambs and Eisbibers. He says friends, I say okay._

That was when Bud's light fell across a familiar head of red hair crouched at a riverbank a short distance away. "Juliette Silverton?" Bud asked, both hoping she was and hoping she wasn't.

"I am she," Juliette said, standing up at the water's edge, her feet covered by the stream. "And you are Bud."

Bud swallowed, nearly choking on his nervousness. _Would have been even scarier if we had never met, true._ "Nick's looking for you. He's worried."

"Nick is not here," she said, striding towards the Eisbibers with what could only be a hungry look on her face. "What do you want, Bud?"

"To get you back to Nick." _As quickly as possible._

Juliette stopped where she was, her toes gripping a tree root better than an Eisbiber or Blutbad could - _Not that I ever looked at a Blutbad's toes,_ Bud thought. _Well, there was that girl in school, but that was years ago._

"Is that your request?" Juliette asked.

"Yyyes."

"There's more," she said expectantly. "Tell me," the woodland breeze playing on the Eisbibers' shirts and the jacket and trousers Juliette had on.

"It's nothing," Bud said.

"Tell. Me. Now," Juliette said, her voice reminding Bud of all the nightmare-tales his people had of the Nixen.

"Agirliknew," Bud blurted out. "I just thought...I don't know."

"Nandaloshi, done," Juliette said, her voice pleasing and calm. "Now, where is Nick?"

Hoping that was the entirety of payment for whatever she thought he'd said, Bud opened his mouth to answer, but a loud roaring growl interupted him. _Uh-oh, um, who was that?_


	3. Confront

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Go," she asked Nick. "Do...what you think is best."
> 
> "Hey, I'm not -" Nick started to say.
> 
> Juliette considered staring him down, or trying to scare him, or giving him an order; ultimately she knew that none of them would work. "Please," she asked him.

"They're here," Monroe said, and their little group mounted the next rise, and looked down - and saw Bud and several Eisbibers held captive alongside Juliette. 'Captive' in the sense of being held in place by Mr. Rabe, who still had a gun trained on him by the woman Nick recognized as the woman who claimed to be his mother.

"Sorry I'm late," Captain Renard said, coming up from behind Nick and Monroe, joining them. Looking at Rabe, "Always good hired muscle. Or under-threat muscle."

"There are better, Renard," Vera said, coming up, leading a line of earthshakers - a line of them so long that they encircled the lower ground where the Eisbibers et al were captive. "You just can't afford them. But then, neither can the Verrat." The earthshakers were both classic Ogres and something slenderer, slightly taller, and one-eyed.

"Where did you get Arimaspeans from?" Monroe asked. Under his breath to Nick, "They're the cyclopses."

"They and the Ogres are, with rare rogue exceptions, are loyalists we keep close to us," Vera said. "They rarely wander."

"Some do," Nick said.

"Rogues. Every species has them. Even Blutbaden, as you've encountered."

Monroe said something under his breath. "Yeah," he said.

Vera said to Monroe, "Stop concerning yourself with your home - it is fine. It was repaired by she who is Hexenbiest once more." Into the vale, Vera shouted, "Surrender now, Grimm. Or the penalties accrue more painfully for you."

"That would cost you the mis-minded young lady you tried fobbing off on my son," the hostage-taker called back. "Send down my son, and I may give the Eisbibers a release from their troubles."

"I'm going," Nick said. "Anyone tries to stop me, and I think you know by now what I'll do."

"I'm going with you," Renard said. "This isn't about playing the hero - it's about keeping her from having the playing field she wants."

"Tell you what, if anything happens to me, you can have her," Nick said and he made his way down the little slope and across the ground to where the Eisbibers were. "I'm here," Nick said. "Can Mr. Rabe take my friends to safety now?"

"Go," his mother said. Rabe was almost up the slope faster than Bud was. "Are you here to defeat me, or to convince me to join you?"

"Is that standard Grimm protocol?" Nick asked.

"No. Standard protocol is to exterminate any Wesen suspected of activity outside the society norms of the time and place. But I've also been gathering reports as to your unconventional M.O., Nick."

"Should I be flattered?"

"You may be. But you should also be aware by now of our sister organizations in the Wesen ranks."

"The Verrat and the Reapers," Nick said. "Yeah, I've had run-ins with them."

"The Reapers in the Old World are more the do-the-biddings of the Verrat these days. Around here, the Reapers have greater autonomy. But one thing does not change.

"In all of history, there is only one thing on which we Grimms are in agreement with the Reapers and the Verrat."

"Really? I might have thought two things, in all that time," Nick said. "What's the one?"

"That the Nock - the Nixen as your Blutbaden say - cannot be trusted. That's why they aren't in charge any more and never will be again."

"I trust Juliette," Nick said.

"She is one of them," his mother said. "In spirit and morals, certainly. In sympathies, definately."

"I don't care. I love her."

"And what will that change?"

"I don't know and don't care what it changes - I won't abandon Juliette to you or to anyone else."

"I suppose you're going to say I have to go through you if I want her dead."

Nick nodded.

"Except for one thing, Nicholas," his mother said to him, gripping him by the front of his shirt. "I am a Grimm," and hurled him through the air to one side.

Juliette locked her eyes on Nick's body, and she kicked away, moving as fast as she could through the wood and underbrush, ignoring the pains from thorns and splintery sticks -- and she leaped, rolling over in mid-air and clutching Nick.

And they landed, Juliette taking the brunt of the impact.

While Renard and Monroe were starting to make his way down the slope, each with one eye on the proceedings, Juliette was talking: "Go," she asked Nick. "Do...what you think is best."

"Hey, I'm not -" Nick started to say.

Juliette considered staring him down, or trying to scare him, or giving him an order; ultimately she knew that none of them would work. "Please," she asked him.

Nick nodded, kissed her hands, then her lips. "I'll be back. I promise." He stood up beside her, and turned to face his mother. "That wasn't smart," he told her.

"A noble dying gesture doesn't make me reconsider," his mother said. "It just takes her from you. Now the question is how much pain you're willing to see her go through."

"I'm still not going to let you kill her."

"What about you?"

"You'd kill me?" Nick asked.

"I would prefer not to. But will you put her out of her misery, end her suffering, et al all the expressions trotted out for this, Nick?"

"While you run away? Escape once more?"

His mother held up her arms. "Where would I go, Nick? Your friends have this surrounded. My advantage is that not only am I a jurisdictional nightmare, I am also a political hot potato."

"Well in that case," Nick said, and spoke louder: "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say..." giving the full Miranda while Monroe and Renard and Vera came down, with one Ogre to hold each of the Mother's arms.

"We got her," Vera said.

"I'll ask about the jurisdiction and hot potato comments later," Nick said, returning to Juliette's side, kneeling beside her. To Juliette, Nick said, "I'm back."

"You did promise," Juliette smiled. And she closed her eyes.

*******

Juliette opened her eyes and found herself back in the hospital. A different room, this time.

Nick was at her side, holding her hand. "Hey," he said.

"You're here," Juliette said.

"A lot of us are in the waiting room, actually."

"We're glad you're okay, Juliette," Sean Renard said, standing alongside the door.

"Thank you," she said.

Nick said, "The doctors are saying that you'll have bruises and pained walking for a while, but there isn't any damage to the spine."

"That's a relief. I'd feel very awkward at the family reunions if I couldn't swim."

Sean and Nick smiled at that.

"So," Juliette asked, "I suppose this means the two of you have finally talked?"

"About jurisdiction?" Nick asked. "Your sister wasn't very forthcoming about that. She just looked at the Captain, and said she'd send the paperwork along."

Juliette groaned.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...relatively." She sighed. "You know I used to date Sean, Nick?"

Nick nodded. _Before you met me._ "I know."

With a weak smile, "Since then, you've both been promoted."

"Nick became a Grimm," Sean said.

"And you became a Captain," Nick said.

"And head of the canton."

"Canton?"

"Bigger than a city, smaller than a state."

To Nick, Juliette said, "When shall we schedule the wedding, Nick?"

"You mean you still -"

She nodded. "Just promise me one thing."

Nick nodded.

"When you need to explain something, begin in the shallows and work to deeper water."

 _Yeah, the Verrat and Hitler probably weren't the best way to explain Grimms for the first time._ "Absolutely. And -"

"I'll abide by it as well," Juliette said.

"I'll let everyone know you're both fine," Renard said, leaving. "Do try not to scandalize the nurses."

 *******  
SIX MONTHS LATER:

Shopping was progressing moderately well. But there was enough of a line for the seafood that memory was permitted to intrude.

Vera had considered unleashing the restored Adalind Schade on Captain Renard. But one thing held her back: Juliette.

Juliette had never been blood related, but there were other bonds that held ones together as well or better. Trust, tutorship, sisterhood… Vera considered a promise to Juliette as binding as a promise to any other of their Family.

And Juliette had never withdrawn her declaration that Sean Renard was under her protection. An attack on Sean would therefore be an attack on Juliette. And an attack on Juliette would bring the Family and their loyalists down to break the attackers. _And now it will bring at least one Grimm to bear._

Looking at the items on the shelves, Vera said, "The only question is, what to get them for a wedding present?"


End file.
